Can you really be location independent?

“It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”

Henry David Thoreau

Have you ever dreamed of leaving your office job and just working for yourself? Have you ever looked at your watch at 2pm during the workday and felt that you are in prison and you will die if you don’t get out of there (and it doesn’t really matter if it’s a cool high-tech office or a small garage)?

So, I did it! (And I’m proud of it actually, although I couldn’t have done it without my sweet husband’s support and encouragement 🙂 )

I left my office job nearly a month ago and decided to be independent and work for myself only. Honestly, I was afraid and I still am. And who isn’t? But my wish to be free was more than my fear and at some point I didn’t really care what’s gonna happen. I didn’t plan for it for years, I didn’t have huge savings, I just felt it’s time to grow up and be myself.

While everybody else tells you what to do to become independent, I’m going to share with you my journey. I have no ready answers, I’m going to try out a lot of things and share my experience with you. I know that there are a lot of people out there like me, who are educated, creative, like being free, don’t wanna work for anybody else’s dreams and wanna build their own lives. I think that even if there are just 100 people like me, it’s worth writing and sharing it, ’cause I also would love to hear about all your experiences and journeys to your desired lifestyle.

Living in Los Angeles you see a lot of people around you that have flexible schedules, can allow themselves going to the beach during workdays, travel all the time and it all seams so easy. But is it?

When you google “how to be location independent” you feel like your dreams have come true. There are tons of tip-articles that advise you how to ditch your office job, start your own business and go lie on the beach with the cocktail.

Most of the times, when people talk about working from anywhere, they consider that you want to travel ALL THE TIME. The idea of being a “digital nomad” is a hype now. There are a lot of interesting pages and Facebook groups, like Webworktravel – Digital Nomad Network, Digital Nomads, Escape, Nunomad, Location Independent etc. if you want to work for yourself AND travel. They will help you find everything from most affordable countries to co-working spaces and local communities.

But what if you don’t wanna travel all the time? I’m all for traveling. I’ve been in 13 countries, I love airports and trains and can’t imagine my life without going to new places. But do I wanna do it all the time? No. I have a family in LA, I want to live and work here and I can’t consider travelling during the whole year (taking into account my family members’ lifestyle preferences and expenses).

Last year Forbes did an extensive research on the “digital nomad” lifestyle and found out that 75% of digital nomads are self employed or small business owners and that most of them try to live in low-cost countries like Indonesia or Thailand, while charging their clients by higher rates in western countries.

So, the question is can you make a decent living (if not become rich) by working for yourself and still living in an expensive city like Los Angeles?

Now I’m trying to find the answer to that question. So, I decided to do what I love most and try make a living sitting in my LA apartment (well, also going to ocean sometimes 🙂 ).

I’m a journalist/marketing specialist by background and I did it for a lot of years but I’m also going crazy for creating art in a form of jewelry or other design pieces (check them here). Eventually, I decided to combine them – create art, write about it and my experiences on the way and see where it goes. I started creating the designs that I long had in mind and opened my Etsy shop.

Now it’s time to manage all of that – create, write, spend time with my husband, cook healthy food (we try eating at home for most of the time), travel and manage the house (my FAVORITE part 🙂 ).

So, if you are going through the same, had a good or bad experience or even if you are still afraid to leave your office, please, share it with me. I would love to hear your thoughts.

For us it actually depends on the job role. For operational roles that require the use of office systems, it can be challenging to be location independent though the use of VPN should overcome it these days. Even in Mel’s current role where he covers an entire region, being on the road in different countries is the norm anyway! So we agree, it is possible to be location independent and still be in a job that pays well!